I am mad at Gracie today. She decided that she wanted me to get up at
3 a.m. and play with her. Then she figured she'd try it at five. Then
eight.

No tunafish for Gracie.

My nephew may be coming home with me next week. We talked about his staying
with me a couple of days and my driving him to his uncle's in North Carolina.
So the Busch Gardens trip is going to be very different. We'll
have a 13-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl, and two 10-year-old girls.
The kids are reaching the point where they're really outnumbering
the grownups.

But boy, are we gonna have fun.

I did not take the top off my car last night. This was a very good thing,
as there was a downpour around three a.m. Oh. That must have been what
woke me up then, not Gracie. But she did wake me the other two
times. Imperious Mew strikes again.

By the way, I clocked myself. I can take the windows off, put them in
the case, and put the top down in under five minutes. It takes slightly
longer to put them back on. Time to get a tarp and keep that over the
car overnight.

I miss having a garage. I had one in Montclair, and would laugh at overnight
downpours. Ha! Ha, I would say.

Sigh.

Busy weekend ahead. It's America's birthday. Here's hoping the terrorists
don't get a chance to set off their version of fireworks. I'll be at Fort
Lee. I'm not the least bit worried that they'll attack an army post. It's
neat being there, actually. Lots of patriotic music, and people who really
care about the Fourth.

I maintain that the American Revolution is one of the greatest moments
in the history of mankind. Oh, we've got our detractors, but if we opened
our borders tomorrow, the rest of the world would pour into our nation.
Including the French, I'd bet. permalink
| |

Y'know, it really is Old Home Year for me or something. First I get an
email from someone I knew when I was 13. Then I get an email from someone
I knew when I was, uh, 13. Junior high. Spoke to her today. She never
knew the reason we lost touch in 9th grade is because I moved to Maplewood
that summer. We were from such a large school system, they broke up the
junior high school classes into three different high schools. We would
have been in different high schools regardless, but it kinda sucked to
hear that if I had gone to Rutgers New Brunswick, we probably would
have hooked up again. Ah, well.

So tonight I hear from someone I knew in my later years: The late eighties.
And like
I said the other day, I'm pretty much stuck admitting I am who I am.
As far as I know, there is no other Meryl Yourish in existence. I'd better
tell my cousin not to name any of her kids Meryl. Oh, wait, her name's
probably not Yourish anymore since she got married. Phew.

If this keeps up, everyone I used to know is going to send me an email
asking me if I'm me. I should make up a standard response.

Let's see, who do I want to hear from... Okay, Terry from sixth grade,
Jan Lucas, Shari Rubinstein, Stella Cherico, and Kevin Hawley from junior
high school, and Marianne Sarno from high school.

And while I'm at it, I'd also like to hear from Hugh Jackman. I don't
care if he's married. All that and he sings, too. Sigh. (But he didn't
deserve the Tony. Sorry, Hugh, I may be starstruck, but I know Tony performances,
and yours wasn't one.)

There must be something in the air or something. Either that, or, like,
there aren't that many Yourishes in existence. Oh, that's right: There
aren't. permalink
| |

A soldier on the scene told IsraelNN's Ezra HaLevi
by telephone that five of his fellow soldiers were lightly wounded by
the blast, which opened a 20-meter-wide hole in the earth: "There
were two huge explosions and now there is a giant crater where the parking
lot once was - the whole structure has caved in," he said. "
Thank God, they seem to have dug it under where they thought our barracks
were, but instead blew up the parking lot - thank God everyone is accounted
for. It is really a miracle that they didn't succeed in blowing up the
barracks. There were angels guarding us tonight as we stood guarding
Israel," said the soldier, "we can feel it."

I know a soldier died in the explosion, but it would have been far, far
worse if the pals had had accurate measurements. (Hat tip: Hillel Markowitz):

They craved paradise but blew up a parking lot
With a lot of sweat, and a bomb, but they missed the right spot
It's too bad, Allah is mad
Their tunnel ran a few meters short
They craved paradise but blew up a parking lot

Ooooh, bomb bomb bomb
Ooooh, bomb bomb bomb

They tunneled like rats, and loaded it up with bomb
makings
And they blew it up so the Jews'd think the earth was quaking
No, no, no
It's too bad, Allah is mad
Their tunnel ran a few meters short
They craved paradise but blew up a parking lot

Ooooh, bomb bomb bomb
Ooooh, bomb bomb bomb

They craved paradise but blew up a parking lot

What can I say? Things like this occur to me regularly when my mind is
allowed to wander. Well, the title occurred to me, and then I had to work
on the rest. Tragedy is easy. Comedy is easy. Parody is hard. permalink
| |

Begathon, Yourish-style

So I've been thinking about this post for quite some time. Remember how
I said I was going to try to take my weblog more into the mainstream?
Fewer posts about Israel and Jewish issues, more post about more general
topics?

Well, I can't seem to do it. The more I think about it, the more I realize
that I simply can't change my style. I can't stop writing about anti-Semitism,
and Israel, and Jewish issues. I find I would rather tackle those topics
than many others. And rather than have a blog that's a mile wide and an
inch deep, I think I'll stick to subjects I know well. That would be anti-Semitism,
Jewish issues, Israel, and catswith a little bit of humor and personal
anecdotes thrown in.

In other words, nah, I'm not changing much. I finally got Stacy to finish
the changes on my new design, and yes, I am going to call the weblog "Center
Stage," but I'm not changing the URL. Just getting a new look.

SSo here's the begathon part of the post: I want more readers. I'm currently
suffering from the summer doldrums, and my readership has hit a plateau.
That happens on a regular basis, then it heads upward again. I realize
I'll never make the traffic of an Instapundit,
and probably not even a Michele
Catalano, but you folks can help me out. Send an email to your friends
with a link to Meirav
was two. Or the newest Arafat
phone transcripts. Or "Science
Dudes, watch out!" Or It's
a Dog's Life. Or send them all four links. A lot of you are on mailing
lists. Well, since I'm not going to go mainstream on you, then my Jewish
readers need to alert your synagogue and JCC pals to this weblog. There
are a lot of people out there who don't know that there areNo
Israel-Bashing Zones, and this is one of them. And if they're cat-lovers,
so much the better. Jews and cats, as Lair
Simon says: His two favorite things. They're two of my favorite things,
too.

And don't think my non-Jewish readers are going to get away scot-free.
Nope. Those posts will work for anyone and everyone. Two serious, three
humorous, and while I'm at it, let me throw in that really great picture
of Gracie
at the patio door.

Now. What are you waiting for? Pick and choose a link, or send them all.
I expect to see tons of email referrers over the next week or two. If
you send someone a link to here, and they click on it, that shows up in
my logs. I'll be able to tell if my begathon is successful.

And you can't beat the price. I'm not asking for a penny. Just an email.
Or two. Or three. Hm. No, wait! Don't spam your friends! No! Please!

I'm driving up to NJ on Monday, and back here on Wednesday. I'll be spending
most of my time with my family, but I might have some time for some NJ/NY
area bloggers. I don't think I'll get into the City, or out to visit Michelenot
this time, anywaybut perhaps we can meet somewhere in northeastern
NJ. Buses run from New York to NJ, y'know. I used to take them home from
work all the time.

If you read the comments in the previous post, you can see a perfect
example of anti-Semitism in action. The commenter manages to get just
about every ingredient of Jew-hatred in a mere five sentences.

Firstly, I've got to say it, you're one hell of a blinkered
freak.

Here we go, start off with the personal attack. Way to get my attention,
asshole. Oh, and right back atcha.

Being anti-Israel or anti-Zionist is not being anti-Semitic.

Being against the Jewish state is not anti-Semitic? Really? Being against
the establishment and continuation of the state of Israelwhich is
the definition of Zionismisn't anti-Semitic? So, I guess being anti-France
doesn't mean you're anti-French, then.

Your argument is simplistic and lacks not only information
but intellectual capacity.

This is a textbook example of what the psychiatric profession calls "projection."
Or, as our famous E.nough of LGF fame would say, "Pot, meet Kettle."

People can and should be able to be critical of Israel
without being called Jew-haters.

You're absolutely right. And it astonishes me that so many cannot
criticize Israel without using the classic symbolism of Jew-hatred. Which
is what Ralph Nader did when he said that America's government is being
controlled by Israel. Which is what you're going to do next.

It's Jews like you that make people think that all
Jews should have died in the gas chambers.

You simply cannot get any more anti-Semitic than by making a statement
like this. But I'm not surprised. After reading through this asshole's
blog, I see that he is nothing but a mass of bigotry and stupidity. I
mean, reallyhow much should we care about the opinion of a twentysomething
boy who proudly states in his Blogger profile that he shaves his balls?
I mean, that's not exactly the demographic I've been going for here.

I also sense a huge amount of envy for those who are, well, better than
him. Because that's one of the things that chaps anti-Semites' asses the
most: Jews make up only a tiny fraction of the world's population, yet
we have brought the world more important inventions than any six cultures
combined (excepting America, which, gee, has a lot of Jewish inventors,
doctors, lawyers, writers, financiers... yeah, we got that). Polio vaccine,
drip-irrigation technology (that would be those Zionists that invented
that, and gave it to the world so that they can make the desert bloom),
the background for most of the world's religions, and the ethics and morals
that arose because of thatyeah, Jews did that, too.

The way I see it, this guy came across my blog for one reason or another,
and decided to unload some of his excess crap. I figure him for a blivit.
That would be ten pounds of shit stuffed into a five-pound bag. Someone
may have to convert that to kilos for him. He's not that bright, and his
blog says he's from Sydney. Sorry to hear that, Tom
and Tim.

Too bad there's no hack for anti-Semitic comment spam. Guess I'll just
have to make mine the old-fashioned way. Do let the door hit you on the
ass, Jew-hater. permalink
| |

"What has been happening over the years is a predictable
routine of foreign visitation from the head of the Israeli government,"
Nader said. "The Israeli puppeteer travels to Washington. The Israeli
puppeteer meets with the puppet in the White House, and then moves down
Pennsylvania Avenue, and meets with the puppets in Congress. And then
takes back billions of taxpayer dollars. It is time for the Washington
puppet show to be replaced by the Washington peace show."

Nader spoke Tuesday in Washington at the release of
a survey of American Muslim voter opinion, commissioned by the Council
on American-Islamic Relations. The survey of 1,161 voters this month
showed that the majority of voters, 56 percent, supported the presumptive
Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry, and 26% favored Nader, more than
five times the percentage Nader has received in nationwide and statewide
polls.

The thread over at LGF is over 400 comments long, and one
in particular, by LGF reader Renna, struck me as completely right:

It also amazes me that he can think the opposite of
support for Israel is the support for peace.

But of course, if you think that the Jews and Israel are responsible
for all the world's ills, then of course, the opposite of Israel is peace.

By the way, this has not shown up in a single American major media outlet,
or on any wire service. A major presidential candidate comes out with
blatant anti-Semitic remarks, and the media ignores it completely.

Responding to a continuing series of Qassam rocket
attacks on and near Sderot, Israel Defense Forces troops have started
a major operation in the northern Gaza Strip area of Beit Hanun and
the Jabalya refugee camp.

IDF sources said last night that Operation Front Shield
is likely to be conducted in a number of stages over several months.

Palestinian militants fired a barrage of homemade Qassam
rockets at the town of Sderot yesterday as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
visited the southern region. Israeli security officials said that at
least three rockets landed in western Negev areas. One person was moderately
wounded in the attacks, which came a day after Qassam rockets killed
three-year-old Afik Zahavi and 49-year-old Mordechai Yosepov.

That's right, the bastards are still firing rockets into Israel proper.
Go to the second link above, and you can see a picture from Reuters showing
one exploding outside of Sderot.

Still waiting for the condemnation from Kofi Annan. I guess he only
gets upset when palestinian women and children are hurt or killed.

For everything you never wanted to know about palestinian rocket scientists,
check out this article in the Jerusalem Post:

Since the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip first developed
the crude Kassam rocket about two and a half years ago, they have launched
about 300. According to IDF statistics, 70 have hit Sderot, 160 landed
in open ground across the Green Line, and some 20 in Gush Katif. This
is in addition to the some 4,000 mortar rounds that have been fired.
A large percentage of the Kassams have been duds.

The Palestinians have experimented with the Kassam
design to boost its warhead and range. Their ultimate goal is to hit
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ranch, some 10 kilometers from the northeast
corner of the Gaza Strip.

[...] Until Monday's attack on Sderot, no one had been
killed by the Kassam. But that was only luck. "I don't think that
there has been any major change in the Kassam. It is true that there
were fatalities. But they could have come from the first or second attack
or the 300th," said Yiftah Shapir, a missile expert and senior
researcher at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.

The Kassam that killed toddler Afik Zahavi and Mordechai
Yosefov, 50, in Sderot Monday was considered more advanced, as the warhead
was filled with more powerful TNT and not home-made explosives.

Still, Shapir said that the latest rockets, dubbed
"Nasser 3," do not appear to be a major leap in capabilities.

The Kassam is a simple product made with ordinary pipes
and worked on standard lathes. Thin fins are welded to its sides to
give it moderate stability, and it is stuffed with a solid concoction
of propulsion fuel. The more difficult part is the warhead. But that
is operated by a simple fuse that detonates upon impact. They can only
be aimed in a general direction, with an accuracy of some 10 percent
of their range. Fired from the Beit Hanun area to Sderot, eight kilometers
away means they may land 800 meters from their target. This makes it
more of a terror weapon than a tactical one.

Terror weapon or not, these rocket attacks will continue until the palestinians
decide to stop them. Which will be never. I have no faith whatsoever in
the ability of the Egyptians to tame these terrorists. I no longer have
any faith that Ariel Sharon has any kind of plan, either, other than "Get
the hell out of Dodge." And I don't think that's going to work.

Rockets fell on a nursery school. A four-year-old died. The world, with
few
exceptions, is silent.
Why? Because it was an Israeli child. Reverse the situation, have a shell
fall and kill a four-year-old palestinian boy, and the world rushes to
condemn Israel.

This
is the child who died. His mother still doesn't know her baby is gone.
His father said
"It wasn't his time to die, I would have gone instead of him."

One thing that is absent from the funeral: The cries of revenge on Afik's
killers. Complaints that the government isn't protecting the townspeople,
yes. Prayers for peace and protection, yes. And statements of determination.

But no cries of revenge. There is no cult of death in Israel. Jews are
taught to revere life. Islamists think that's a weakness. I think it's
one of our strengths. permalink
| |

Of course, it's all Israel's fault. If they hadn't gone and killed all
those terrorists, then the terrorists wouldn't have done anything to them.
Right?

Uh, no. The terrorists pulled off an attack
on an army post. A four-year-old was killed
by Kassam rockets that struck Sderot, which is a community in southern
Israel. (Not a "settlement." A town in Israel.) And what
does Reuters
say?

About a dozen people were wounded.

It was the first time Qassam-2 rockets fired from Gaza,
whose small payloads usually cause no serious injuries, had killed anyone
in Israel. Sharon planned to hold security consultations later in the
day, an official said.

So those dozen people, what, fell on the ground in shock and wounded
themselves? Reuters reporters can't even stop from contradicting themselves
in their own articles.

Then there's this piece of crap about how the slain terrorist "stood
up to Arafat," the clear implication being that Israel has killed
a reformer. Funny how Reuters doesn't seem to care that this "reformer"
was responsible for suicide bombings and the deaths of innocents.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - When Israel killed
its most wanted man in the West Bank, it may also have removed a headache
for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

As the most senior commander for the al-Aqsa Martyrs'
Brigades in its West Bank heartland, Nayef Abu Sharkh had led a drive
to unify the disparate bands of the armed faction within Arafat's Fatah
movement.

But he was also at the vanguard of calls for Arafat
to clean up corruption, jettison a generation of politicians seen as
discredited by many young Palestinians and to hold elections.

"Abu Sharkh had threatened Arafat that if the
Brigades' demands for democratization were not met, the armed groups
which form the bulk of the younger generation would leave Fatah or carry
out elections in defiance of the old guard," a senior Fatah official
said.

Abu Sharkh, 38, was killed at his hideout in Nablus
on Saturday with five other militants.

He had been in the job for two months.

The Israeli army said Abu Sharkh was behind a
suicide bombing that killed 23 people in Tel Aviv early in 2003 and
numerous other attacks.

Then, of course, Reuters reported with great glee the
attack on the IDF outpost later in the day. The Reuters count: Five
or six dead, "scores" wounded. The actual count: One dead, five
wounded. Retractions: None.

Rescue efforts were hampered by Palestinian gun and
mortar fire directed toward the scene, on the route to the Gush Khatif
settlement bloc. The militant Islamic Hamas movement and the al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in President Yasser Arafat's Fatah
faction, claimed joint responsibility.

They called it retaliation for Israel's assassination
of two top Hamas leaders earlier this year as well as the killing of
a leader of the al-Aqsa Brigades in the West Bank city of Nablus Saturday.

The factions said 3,300 pounds of explosives were hidden
at the end of a 350-yard tunnel under the post.

Cheering crowds of tens of thousands of Palestinians
filled the streets of Gaza City in celebration. Gunmen fired in the
air and youths set off pipe-bombs.

"God pleased our hearts. An eye for an eye,"
they chanted.

There is going to be a war after Israel withdraws from Gaza and the West
Bank. Mark my words. The pals will not stop firing rockets, and they will
not stop suicide bomb attacks.

I'm beginning to believe that Egypt's role in all of this is to prime
the Gazans to be their front line soldiers. permalink
| |

It's old home month for me. A few weeks ago, I heard from someone I haven't
seen or heard from since I was 13 years old. Then last week, I got an
email asking me if I'm the Meryl Yourish that went to [name withheld]
Junior High School. Yes, I am, and yes, it was a long time ago, and geez,
Googling my name is going to bring me email from lots of people I used
to know, I think. Especially now, when more and more people have internet
access. So perhaps I should run this pre-emptive strike: If you knew a
Meryl Yourish at any time in your past, it was probably me. As far as
I know, I'm the only one with that name in the country, if not the world.

Which is, frankly, really cool.

My Jeep got rained on a bit Friday night. I heard the rain start as I
was lying in bed, and thought about getting out of bed and putting the
windows on. I had the top up. I decided against it. Well, it poured. Oh,
well. That's what the plugs in the bottom of the Jeep are for, and it's
mostly dry now. Sunny tomorrow, so that ought to finish it up.

I watched the moon as I was driving home from work Saturday night. Not
through my windshield. Over my head, where the roof would be. That's why
I don't mind too much that the carpet is wet. It'll dry.

There appears to be a wasp's nest in the roof of my kitchen. I saw a
wasp fly into a hole under the shingle. It didn't fly out. That would
explain my visitor
from last week, and the dead wasp on my laundry pile, and, oh yeah, the
wasp that got into my kitchen this evening.

The bugs have it in for me this summer. Or, as one of the rental agents
said to me last week: Welcome to life in a forest. (My development has
many, many trees and is sort of in the woods.)

The Terriorist thinks that Tig
is a danger to me. I'm going to talk to Tig and tell him what this
dog wrote about him, and get back to you later in the week. I suspect
the fur will fly over this.

I'd be mad at Harrison, but he links to the
story behind that duck photo that's made the rounds of email lately.
The photographer saved all but one of them. Thanks, Harrison. I really
hated seeing those photos and thinking of the poor ducklings.

And no, I didn't think of them as cat toys.

Joe G. got such a kick out of the Manhattan driving stories, he grabbed
a picture of this great parking job near his home. I think his title is
about right: Best parking job ever.

And, uhthat's Joe's car. He parked it that way.

Perhaps this isn't the time to tell him that I failed parallel parking
on my driving test once upon a time.

These are two really funny links, with one for background purposes. You
need to go to them in order. First, go here to see what
Bucky Badger looks like. (The reason I needed to know is because Sarah
and Larry G. are Wisconsin alumni, which is why they found the badger
song in the first place.) Okay. Then go
here. Max was singing this song last week, and Sarah needed to explain
to me what he was singing. Last, but not least, click
on this link, especially if you're a LOTR fan. Mind you, even though
the last two links are really funny, I must give you fair warning: The
song is incredibly, annoyingly catchy. You will find yourself singing
it, either aloud or in your head. And it's really, really stupid.

I took off from work today. There are no parties scheduled, it's dead,
and my boss knows I'm twelve minutes away if a large party suddenly decides
to climb rocks indoors on a beautiful summer Sunday in Richmond. So I'm
surfing the web, writing posts, taking pictures, and all-around enjoying
my first Sunday off since Easter. I slept very late this morning.
I would have slept even longer, but Wind
Rider called me from the road. He's currently discovering the joys
of traffic on the Northeast Corridor. He hit some typical NJ traffic on
the Turnpike, which I explained to him was not really 95 as I told him
he could hop west to Pennsylvania and get on 95 if the traffic got too
bad. I don't think he liked that idea, though I find the ride past Philadelphia
nicer than being on the two-lane section of the Turnpike. There's always
traffic on the Turnpike.

Anyway. Yay for lazy Sunday afternoons. I haven't even showered yet,
and it's after three. I'll get to it before WR gets here, and then he
can tell me all about his New York trip over dinner. He drove around Manhattan,
he told me. "Nobody drives around Manhattan," I said. "It
was fun," he said. Yeah, it's all fun and games until you hit the
block party in the Village and discover the true meaning of the word "gridlock."

Which he did.

Well. Off to finish my lazy afternoon. I tried to edit Jake's birthday
pictures into a memory book, but damn, I'm feeling too lazy for that,
too. I tried to get to my long-promised full-page kitty pictorial for
Rahel. Too lazy and tired for that, too. (I have a legitimate excuse.
Working seven days a week will do that to you.) But I did crop one picture
for Rahel and the other cat-lovers in my audience. This is the view from
my patio door on a sunny day. Tig has discovered the joys of sleeping
in the sun.

Good thing cats don't get sunburn. For Tig, and frankly, right now, for
me: Life is good. permalink
| |

The re-emergence of French anti-Semitism

How can you tell that the level of anti-Semitism in France has reached
heights not seen since the 1930s? When the man who is a former Prime Minister
of France, a current member of the European Parliament, and in line to
become the next president of the European Union tells an audience in Egypt
that the Balfour Declaration was "a
historic mistake," I think we can safely conclude that French
Jews are in grave danger once more.

Michel Rocard, who is said to be in the running for
president of the European Parliament for the coming two and a half years
as part of a political deal, spoke about Israel in a lecture last week
in Alexandria, Egypt. Israel is a "unique and abnormal condition,"
he said, "because it was created with a promise, and [because]
millions of Jews gathered from all around the world, creating an entity
that continues to pose a threat to its neighbors until today."